“The Caruso snuck onto Veltos and set up an illegal mine, and when an earthquake collapsed the mine tunnels, they had mass casualties on their hands. In order to get their people off-planet without tipping off the VSC, they took out a VSC satellite and tried to kill everyone on Veltos.” Linao leaned back in her chair.
Velda hadn’t heard any of this. “How many people were on Veltos?”
Linao smiled. “Only three scientists and a group of VSC soldiers participating on the Veltos Trail.”
The Veltos Trail. Of course.
Velda had nominated a few Department of Defense personnel who’d been injured to be awarded a place on one of the groups walking the Trail. It was a real honor to be chosen, and there were a limited number of places.
“How did that whole incident create a split in the Caruso?” Ethan asked.
“Apparently, once it became clear they couldn’t kill everyone on planet, and that the people on the Trail had been able to call in an Arkhoran warship to help them, the Caruso tried to simply kill their own people on the planet, so no one could spill theirsecrets.” Linao dropped her voice even lower. “The head of the mine sent his most severely injured people up to their own ship to save them, and called for something that’s very specific in Caruson culture?—”
“Fraknvos.” The Caruson who’d spoken with them yesterday, and who Linao had called Nirro, came to stand directly behind Linao. Velda had noticed him come in, and he must have excellent hearing, because he had obviously heard every word Linao had said. Either that or this table had a listening device hidden somewhere on it. “They called forfraknvos, and that is a call that can never be denied. And yet, on that day, it was.”
“They asked for help, a special kind of help that must be honored?” Velda was beginning to understand.
Nirro nodded. “Vrk asked for it, to save those under his command, and they turned him away and then tried to kill him and everyone else they’d sent down to the mine to keep them quiet.”
“I remember the name Vrk.” Ethan turned to look at the Caruson. “He was taken prisoner by the Arkhorans, wasn’t he? Him and a group of others?”
“He had no choice but to surrender to the VSC after our own military tried to kill him.” Nirro’s narrow nostrils flared. “He and his people were eventually returned to Caruso, but by then the word had gotten out through the contact he and his people had with their family and friends while they were being held on Arkhor.”
Velda wondered how well the Arkhorans had monitored those communications. Not very well if they hadn’t realized what was going on.
“So everything that had happened to them was made public?” Ethan asked.
“They’d have preferred to keep it secret and I’m sure the Caruson government would have liked to have had Vrk killedon his return, but it was too late by then. Even they could see that would not be wise,” Nirro said. “The captains of the ships who refused to help, who tried to kill Vrk and his people, they were tried and convicted, but they had been under orders, so then the people looked at who above them could have ordered such a thing, and when no one was prosecuted for that most horrendous of crimes, the people began to wonder if they wanted such leaders leading them anymore.”
“When did this happen?” Velda asked.
“It’s been a long, slow process.” Nirro crossed his arms. “First, Vrk and his crew were under Arkhoran control, and then after months of negotiation, they were returned, and then came the captains’ trials, and then the demand for accountability, and then the realization that nothing was going to happen. We have been fighting the system for perhaps six months or more.”
Which is why things had definitely gone quiet in the last few months. Velda and her advisors had assumed the Caruso were either biding their time, waiting for an opportunity, or they were stockpiling weapons and getting ready for an attack.
Arkhor and Raxia really should have weighed in and let them all know things were not exactly happy between the group they’d taken prisoner and the home planet. Unless they hadn’t realized the full extent of it.
It was possible the Caruso had kept things low key, because even the group who wanted to overthrow the current Caruson government probably saw the VSC as an enemy.
“So what’s the deal between the Cores and the rebels?” Velda asked. “Weren’t the Caruso already cooperating with the Cores?”
“The original agreement wasn’t honored.” Linao said. “We found new allies.”
This explained so much. Velda had wondered for a long time how the Cores kept dealing with the Caruso when they’d reneged on their bargains over and over again.
It looked like all this time, they’d been in secret talks with the competition. “Was this ship takeover the first fall of the hammer?” Velda asked.
Linao and Nirro exchanged a look, and neither answered.
There was something else going on here.
Nirro was called to by someone in the passageway outside the canteen, and he left them, striding off.
“He won’t let you leave, will he?” Ethan asked.
Linao shot him a quick look, then lifted a shoulder. “We’re still hammering out the final details of our cooperation. It may be they’re a little reluctant to let us go until they have some assurances.”
Ethan’s lips twitched. “I wondered how the Cores kept getting into alliances with the Caruso, only to have them do whatever suited them best over and over. Now I’m wondering what the Caruso could be thinking, trusting you lot.”
